Part 8 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - wrap-up

[trainman203]

Part 8 - A trip down the Midland Western (using DCC) - wrap-up

You have to look very hard today to find anyone interested in branchline model railroading, especially modeling such railroading in the entirely steam era. I know, I've looked. I only know of one other guy on the entire Gulf Coast who is. If you're looking for heavy, exciting mainline action, it's not for you.  But, as far as fitting relatively realistic operation onto a small model railroad, you're never going to get a Big Boy or the Super Chief looking very realistic on a 4 x 8 layout, or even anything a good bit bigger.

 You can, however, create a reasonable facsimile of small time railroading in such spaces.  But it is not the first choice of almost everyone entering model railroading.

First of all, small time railroading just does not have the kinetic appeal of the big time operations. Secondly, many, if not most, old-fashioned short lines and branchlines are long, long gone today, so there is no first-hand witness to these operations anymore, although there is somewhat of a resurgence in modern short lines that often are the result of local businesses purchasing a soon to be abandoned branch to retain rail service at their facility.  Personally, I don't find the same appeal in these modern operations as I do in the short lines and branches of 75 years ago with steam power, outdated rundown equipment, and weed grown track.  But that's just me. I was lucky to be raised in a town with not one, but two branchlines, both very fine prototypes to model. And they are both gone today.  If there's anyone interested in modern short line modeling, I'd like to hear about it. Thirdly, the few people I've ever known that have re-created short line and branch line operations have been model railroading a very long time, and have matured into more realistic aspirations about their space available. Or, like me, were witness to these now-disappeared operations. On small layouts with sharp curves and switches, small steam engines like 10 wheelers and consolidations just look a heck of a lot better and more realistic than  giant modern excursion-era steam and full-length passenger cars.

Part of my motivation to detail a typical train trip on my layout was to show that very realistic operations can be duplicated on a small layout.  You don't even need a loop of track.  I have a 50 foot long point-to-point main line with two terminals and two intermediate communities. That's longer than some layouts, but a whole lot shorter than many larger ones where prototypical operations are typically conducted.

Prototype operations have a lot more detail than is needed to merely make a model train roll, but if you have knowledge of what the prototype really does, you can incorporate some parts of it into your own operation.  My own experiences working on an operational steam locomotive 40 years ago are invaluable, but this knowledge can be found online.  Advanced DCC decoders like the tsunami2–2 have multiple functions that give you a gateway to some of the prototypical functions of a steam locomotive.  Cylinder cocks, wheel slip, coupler crash, Johnson bar are only some of them. There are others I still need to educate myself how to use, such as dynamic digital exhaust, and engine/train braking. 

Plus, knowledge of rules of the road is good to have.  I have a friend who is a retired SP engineer who unsuccessfully (and regrettably for me) tried to get me to go to work for the Southern Pacific almost 50 years ago.  Many long conversations with him gave me much great insight, as well as model railroaders who had railroad experience.  Rulebooks are good to have if you can get through them.  The ones I had for the Houston Division of the SP were like a mid-sized city telephone directory.

Obviously, not everyone is going to dig this deep into actual railroading to simply operate their train and relax.  You can always do that. Before I retired, nothing relaxed me from the workday more than doing simple switching moves for an hour or so on the layout, with a TV show going in the background. But if you choose, you can immerse yourself and completely lose yourself in prototypical operations.

I hope my little series has provided enjoyment for a few people in their model railroad journey. Comments are welcome.

[Terry Toenges]

The older things appeal to me too. Motive power today is just a bunch different shaped boxes. Then there are container cars with bunches of boxes.  That's about all I see today are boxes pulling pulling cars with boxes. An occasional tank car does little to break up the monotony. Being in a small town, I don't see that many anyway.

[trainman203]

Terry , I seem to recall that you are in what used to be Flat River, Illinois. You really need to look into the Missouri – Illinois railroad. It was the Missouri pacific subsidiary that fit right into the type of scenes I described in this whole series. Pieces of it still exist.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missouri–Illinois_Railroad

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSefnPhsMkgI9TvBrO13Dk9rqdt7qhJX95t_g&s

[Terry Toenges]

I'm in what used to be Flat River, Missouri. The track is about a block from my house.